virtctl Client Tool

Retrieving the virtctl client tool

Basic VirtualMachineInstance operations can be performed with the stock kubectl utility. However, the virtctl binary utility is required to use advanced features such as:

• Serial and graphical console access

It also provides convenience commands for:

• Starting and stopping VirtualMachineInstances

• Live migrating VirtualMachineInstances

• Uploading virtual machine disk images

There are two ways to get it:

• the most recent version of the tool can be retrieved from the official release page

• it can be installed as a kubectl plugin using krew

Example:

export VERSION=v0.41.0
wget https://github.com/kubevirt/kubevirt/releases/download/${VERSION}/virtctl-${VERSION}-linux-amd64

Install virtctl with krew

It is required to install krew plugin manager beforehand. If krew is installed, virtctl can be installed via krew:

$ kubectl krew install virt

Then virtctl can be used as a kubectl plugin. For a list of available commands run:

$ kubectl virt help

Every occurrence throughout this guide of

$ ./virtctl <command>...

should then be read as

$ kubectl virt <command>...